Monday, July 30, 2012

Men's hockey: South Korea beat NZ 2-0

First match of the 2012 Olympic competition promised to be a close
contest between two teams following each other in the FIH world rankings
(6th for Korea and 7th for New Zealand) and with similar international
experience (average of 155 international Caps for Korea and 150 for New
Zealand).

As expected, the match started with an intense battle
for possession in midfield, neither team leaving an inch to the other.
The Black Sticks tried to circulate the ball around the Koreans, tightly
regrouped in defense and only sporadically pushing up with long balls
for a high forward. First opportunity for goal was for Simon Child in
the 6th minute on a cross from the right and Korean goalkeeper Lee Myung
Ho slightly out of position, but the ball bounced over his stick just
when he was volleying it.

Kyle Pontifex in goal for New Zealand was called into action shortly
after when a turn-over in midfield was promptly turned into a goal
opportunity by Lee Nam Yong. Although not rich in goal chances, the
intense tactical battle was fascinating and the near capacity crowd of
the Riverbank Arena watched in awe the display of individual and
collective skills, wondering who would be the first to outplay the
opponent. The break came after a green card to Nicholas Haig: Kang Moon
Kyu played the free hit quickly and found You Hyo Sik for an unstoppable
deflection in goal.

This seemed to take some wind out of the Black Sticks’
sails and the Koreans collectively moved higher on the field, leaving
even less space for manoeuver in midfield. They pushed in the final
minutes of the period and a hard cross from the left eluded everybody in
the circle to find You Hyo Sik left unmarked on the far post for his
second goal of the day and a comfortable two-goal lead for Korea going
into the half-time break.

Despite the support of the crowd, the New Zealanders seemed to have
lost their initial enthusiasm and the Koreans had the upper hand at the
beginning of second period. Kyle Pontifex needed to be sharp to fend off
a few Koreans attempts from close range. There always seemed to be an
extra Korean attacker coming from nowhere and the Black Sticks had to
work hard to avoid conceding additional goals. Both teams had a chance
on penalty-corner with ten minutes left to play, but the attempts were
handled well by the defenders.

New Zealand had another flurry of chances with five
minutes left on the clock, but Lee Myung Ho somehow managed to dive left
and right to protect the Korean goal. He was again well positioned a
few minutes later to deflect a penalty-corner shot by Shea Mcaleese, and
Korea could calmly weather the final minutes to end up with the win
after a solid and impressive performance.

ALWAYS HAPPY

ON A HIGH

Always Somewhere..

Sports Journalist with the New Straits Times since 1994.
My main beat is field hockey, so this blog will have stories that I have written for the NST, as well as hockey news from around the globe. There will be regular updates. I was also the Secretary General of the National Press Club, Malaysia for three terms (six years).